Business & Human Rights

Spanish Court Confirms Corporate Criminal Liability

March 16, 2016

Maria Masso of the law firm Baker & McKenzie writes that the Spanish Supreme Court has ruled for the first time that corporations can incur criminal liability under Spanish law.
Under Pressure, University Divests from Private Prisons

March 16, 2016

CNN reports that, following pressure from the Afrikan Black Coalition, which argued that investments by the University of California ("UC") in private prison companies supported "white supremacist dehumanization" of minorities, UC has removed its investments from these businesses.
NGOs Petition CEDAW on Swiss "Tax Justice"

March 10, 2016

A group of nongovernmental organizations has petitioned the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women ("CEDAW") to advance the global "tax justice" agenda in its upcoming review of Switzerland by reviewing the impacts of Switzerland's "opaque financial legislation" on women's rights and gender equality in developing countries.
LSE Project Releases BHR Guide on Investment Policymaking

March 10, 2016

The London School of Economics ("LSE") Investment & Human Rights Project has published a guide for policymakers on how to regulate investments in a way that furthers fulfillment of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights ("BHR").
NGO Calls for Review of "Unfair" Tax Treaties

March 10, 2016

Arguing that tax avoidance in developing countries violates the human rights of these countries' citizens, the nongovernmental organization ActionAid has called for wealthy countries to review their tax treaties with poor countries for provisions that contribute to corporate avoidance of taxation and to rewrite these treaties to resemble the UN's model tax treaty.